Monday, June 23, 2014

Hiking among the Buildings

"I want to live where big things happen on a big scale." F. Scott Fitzgerald

We spent another day in Washington D.C.
We have been hiking the city and alternating it with hiking forts/gardens, etc.

Capitol Building:
We spent Saturday touring the capitol building.

Statue of the Lady of Freedom

This is the casting of "Freedom" who sits on top of the U.S. Capitol Building

When you take a tour of the building.

They give you radio frequency ear phones.

So, you don't have to strain to hear your live person tour guide.

They are standing near a pillar just above the tomb that is located underneath the U.S. Capitol Building. The tomb was for President George Washington. However, George Washington has it specifically in his will where he wants to be buried and even the specifics of how he wanted his family tomb to be built at Mount Vernon. That did not stop Congress for years and years in
harassing the Ladies who own Mount Vernon. So, finally to get Congress to stop asking for his body to be moved to the capitol building, Congress had to pass a law that he would remain at Mount Vernon as his will requested.

We normally pack picnic lunches in each of the Kiddos camel back packs.
(Their back packs have water bags in them. So, if you see anything strangely hanging out of their mouths in my pictures it is the water nozzle that they are drinking from their packs! )

This day we did not bring in our lunches. When I was a child, I remember my parents taking me to the capitol. While there we ate lunch in the cafeteria right there at the Capitol Building. So, we did the same with our kiddos.

Library of Congress:
Once you are through the Capitol Building and through all the security, you can take an underground tunnel that goes directly from the Capitol Building to the Library of Congress.

You can't take pictures of the exhibits. But if I could, I would have shown you President Thomas Jefferson's book collection that he donated to the Library of Congress after the Library of Congress was burnt down by the British in 1812. They were beautiful! Lovely hard color book bindings!

Union Station:

Seeing these two buildings was a full day. So we headed back to the our vehicle.
Hiking back and forth daily from Union Station. Parking at Union Stations is $18 a day.
You can walk all the Smithsonian Museums and the Monuments from this location easily which are all free.

Taxis, Buses, Trolleys, the Metro all met here at Union Stations.
Union Station is made in the design of an old Bath.

It is extremely large. Inside it is 3 stories at least.
You will see a net up above the ceiling because the gold is falling and the net is hopefully catching the gold. Although, before the net was put up people were being hit in the head with the gold. There is 70 pounds of gold in the ceiling alone.

There are shops everywhere. We have eaten dinner at Johnny Rockets twice now.

(A 1950s theme restaurant).

Marine Barracks: The oldest post of the Corps.

Our day was not completed though.
We took a bus to the Marine Barracks for the Sun Set Parade. A Free Event for anyone!
The Marine Sunset Parade is the Marine Band, Drum and Bugle Corps.

This night, a Marine was getting a Medal of Honor for his bravery in the war.
So, it was super packed.
There were Generals, Special Guest/Family, and the Secretary of Defense along with his wife.